I spent my younger years, nearly as far back as I can remember, working in basements and installing furnaces with my father. He and his friends had that "real world strength" that I hear tossed around all the time. I recall shaking hands with some of his co workers, only to have my hand engulfed like it was miniature.

My brothers and I spent most of our time hauling around furances, boilers, pipes, and much more inbetween schools and sports. I love sports. I love competition. That needs to be said. Unfortunately I didn't love the gym...yet!

The strength that we received from the hard work paid off in high school. We didn't have a whole lot of money, but we had more than enough. Unfortunately, with 4 boys in my family, there was too many sports going on in the fall, so I was not able to play football until I was a freshman in school. Two weeks into my very first season, I was brought up to varsity and started immediately.

Was I the best athlete? No. However, I had the gift of work ethic, passed down through the generations to myself. I also had the beginnings of this "real world strength." Fortunately I had two great coaches in high school, and they set me up with a former NFL player to develop my strength. What a blessing! I became hooked on the iron immediately.

There is something about lifting weights that is tough to describe. Chances are if you are reading this site, you already get "it." Fortunately my training landed me at Colgate University to play football, I was estatic.

Long story short, after starting as a freshman, I suffer a series of knee injuries and had 5 surgeries. The doctors told me that I would never regain full strength after having "lateral releases" and cartilidge removed. I balloned up to 315 lbs and felt like crap.

Over the summers, I was stuck in a sheet metal shop making metal squares out of large sheets of metal. A coworker got me back into the gym, and I cut down to 250 that summer and was back in the gym. I have not looked back since.

I regained strength in my legs, and just to be a defiant jackass, I played two years of semi pro football and was selected to the league all star teams. Earning my CSCS ensued shortly after and I started my own old school garage gym to give back to athletes, as so many coaches did for me.

Synergy Athletics was started, and we have had opposing athletes running for the hills ever since! That's it, there is my story.

Articles by Joe Hashey

Guest post by Joe Hashey, CSCS creator of Powerful Recovery Methods
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